Translation is the comprehension of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text that communicates the same message in another language. However, translation of names or nouns from one language to another is difficult. Dealing with languages that belong to different language families, e.g., Arabic and English languages can complicate name translation even further. Arabic is classified as a member of the Semitic family of languages while English is a member of the Indo-European language family. The Arabic language is considered as the official language spoken in more than 15 countries in the Middle East with 290 million native Arabic speakers.
It can be difficult for native Arabic speakers to translate a name from the native Arabic language into the English language. A single name could have many versions in translation to English. For example, the name “”, consists of 4 letters, could have 625 alternatives, and the most common ones are Mohamad, Mohamed, Mohamad, Mohammed, Muhamad, Muhamet, and Muhammet. This complexity may challenge the Arabic speaker when translating a person's name from the native Arabic language into the English language and may cause the person to create duplicate entries for the same individual.